Woodinblack

And of those 5 who said they were "addicted to the lowest string and incapable of playing without it"?

Can you point to anyone who said they were "addicted to the lowest string and incapable of playing without it"? Thought not, but I wouldn't want to spoil your fun in you having your own arguments! The question was 'can you play what you are playing on a squier', to which I answered, that I could do but I wouldn't want to. Of course I can play it on a 4 string. With a bit of thought most songs you could play on a 2 or 1 string. Would you want to? no, I would want to play it on a 5 string. Could I play it on a squier 5 string, yes I could but it would unpleasant and uncomfortable as they only have wide string spacing, so I would rather play it on a proper bass.

thats a shame, it was pretty clear at St Davids hall although I wonder how much of that was because I was in the front row, 8 foot from the stage.

Some basses are also a pain. I have a set of presets on the 450 which have everything set for normal / overdrive / dull and lifeless for blues, and they work fine for all basses, apart from the G&L 2500, which is completely over the top and causes it to clip. OK, I can turn it down, but then changing preset it is back up agin, so I have to play with the volume down on the bass, and hope I don't accidently turn it up. Although in the spirit of this thread, I could actually use a channel of the b3 as a reducing preamp..

In a way, I am saying the voltage level of an active bass (without a bass or treble boost on), if it is correctly set up should be (and is in the case of an ibanez) exactly the same as a passive level. Going into a very high impedance input, it will be at exactly the same voltage. If the impedance of the input is low, then more current will flow, which an active preamp can cope with but a purely passive system can't, so in the passive case, the voltage (and thus the end volume) will go down. I am not talking about the tone shaping, that in this case is a secondary effect, and obviously that last line is correct, you can only boost levels on an active bass. However, unless there is some reason you want to, it wouldn't be correct to boost the level with controls flat. None of my basses do. If your SR1800 does, either there is a problem with it, you are using a really long cable or your amplifier has a low impedance. On my TC450 there is no volume different on any of my basses changing between passive and active. As I have said, I have measured the output of my Ibby 1605 (for another reason) into a high impedance source. There is absolutely no measurable difference. And the point is wrong. The active switch on your amp is to provide a low impedance sink to your preamp which means that injected noise is mostly eliminated and effects of resistance and capacitance in your leads don't cause treble bleed. Obviously that is no good on a passive bass, as you would change the levels and the function of the volume and tone on your bass.

Whereas I am never convinced that everything I have written is 100% correct, which bit does that article disagree with? Once you have a preamp obviously you can then apply tone shaping controls, but that is just a bonus in having the preamp (or what they in that article are called buffering). Again, if you prefer the tone of a passive bass, you are liking the treble cut and loading provided by the capacitance and loss in your cables and the preamp of your amp.

This is one of those misunderstandings that are common with preamps in basses. It is true that on some amps, the output will appear to be higher than with passive, but this is an issue of the amp, not the bass. On an Ibby, the output level in active, is exactly the same as the output level in passive (and I know, I have measured it). In fact, with everything set flat it is not possible to tell the difference between active and passive with a short cable and no electrical noise round. That is the voltage is the same. If your amp has a lowish impedance input, it will drag the voltage from the bass down in passive mode, but in active mode the level will be maintained, so it will appear a lower level. Where you have an active switch it will reduce the impedance of the input, which in a passive bass will greatly reduce the input voltage (and make it go quieter), but not in an active, where it will ensure that noise is reduced in your long cable runs (which is exactly the point of an active bass). In a properly set up active system you shouldn't be able to tell the difference between active and passive, unless you like the treble drop of going through a long cable (which is why the smoothhound has a switch just for that - the cable simulator).

No, important on iPads, if you are using your iPad a sound source and running an X18 mixer display on it on a gig that is going on for 3 hours. It starts getting very dicey!

The fact that the Maruszczyk has a grain that I can trace with my finger. And the amp has loads of lights and an indicator of what note I am playing!

I wouldn't put it in that category at all. The mercedes is actually more comfortable there. I have played a 2 hour gig with a Squier P bass and I have played a 2 hour gig with a American P bass, and the only difference was the American was a bit heavier so a little more tiring. Not disputing it is a better bass, it is, but not in a fundamental way that makes it harder to play (or frankly at a gig in a pub, sound any different).

Doubt I could make the first half an hour on that one! I have been to some big group gigs that have been long and been happy, last weeks steve wilson was 2.5 hours, jethro tull normally went to about 3 hours, I am sure pink floyd back in the day were that sort of time too, but they weren't in pubs playing covers!

Works nicely with a keyboard, not that there is any reason it shouldn't. Probably won't give you anything the model 15 wouldn't but it is a more accessible synth anyway

I said NO and posted a reason, which wasn't the number of frets, but the design. But the question has an hidden message which you didn't ask. It is implying but not saying 'because it is a budget instrument'. If the answer was 'Could you perform your current role on a Fender American Pro', the answer doesn't change, it is still no, for the same reason. If the answer was 'Would you play live the same thing you play on a fender with a squier', the answer would be Yes.

And obviously what it wins on all counts from the hardware is that it is polyphonic

Don't think you are going to be dissapointed

Thanks for that, very impressed with it!

I have always thought that, and tried to say to my present band, but they insist that we do 2.5-3 hours. My wife used to come to see all the gigs, but she doesn't with this group, the gigs are too long.

I played on one of these years ago and quite liked it, back when it was £400. Mooching round Thomman the other day for something else I noticed they had some at £154! I thought maybe it was one of those pricing things, like when I got my two TC RS112 speakers for less than £200, so I bought one, and had to wait for a month, but sure enough, today it turned up - A 4 valve fender 2 x 10 12W amp with reverb: Three controls, volume, tone, reverb, on a guitar it sounds great, and it sounds good on a bass too in the house, so it is my new 'playing around the house' amp that I can also play the guitar through. The style is a bit marmite, but the sound is really good. Added to that, I had the original intention of modding it, although at the moment it seems to sound pretty good without it.

Hobyist, couldn't call 2-3k / year gigging (less this year) any kind of profession!

I have done all right now on a fretless, I did the same thing, fancied a change, took a fretless, noone really noticed!

Well, I said no, but that isn't entirely true. Of course I could, anyone could, but I only really use a 5 string now, so I would have to rejig the way I am playing things, because fender don't make good 5s. So no, because squiers have the same problems as fenders. In my last group I played a squier (classic vibe 70s P) for about 6 months, but that was all 4 string stuff - if I was still doing that, I would still be happy with the squier, or the Jazz bass that I switched to afterwards.

You p*ss yourself and wake up crying? but yes, me too!

I understand it from a drum point of view, but anything I have somewhere else is something that isn't here for me to practice with, and although it can easily be said I have enough basses (but not any spare cabs) I still don't want to leave them somewhere I don't know who has access to. I guess, I have had too much stuff go missing

The guitarist in my band recently messaged to say he had found a practice room we could rent and leave our stuff there. I was very puzzled why anyone would want to leave their stuff anywhere? I would lend stuff (that I didn't care that much about) to certain people for individual gigs. Assuming they had never helped themselves to it before.